ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the US's forefront provider of Koha (www.koha-community.org) support, is happy to announce the promotion of Nicole C. Engard to Vice President of Education.

Nicole started with ByWater Solutions in September of 2009 and in that time she has educated hundreds of librarians on the use of their new Koha ILS installations. In her new role, Nicole will continue to manage education efforts for the company with a new focus on teaching librarians the nature of open source and how they can participate in community efforts. She will also continue in her role as Documentation Manager for the official Koha ILS project and help with supporting those using Koha in their libraries.

"I have been extremely impressed with all of the high quality work that Nicole has done while with ByWater Solutions." states Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater Solutions. "We are more than pleased to reward Nicole with this promotion."

Nicole comments on her new role, "Working at ByWater Solutions these past couple of years has been an amazing experience. I love getting to meet and train librarians around the world and I am excited to get started with my new responsibilities and new training initiatives."

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, top ranked support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: http://bywatersolutions.com

About Koha:
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

Equinox Software, Inc., the open source experts, is proud to announce the formation of a wholly-owned Canadian-based subsidiary, Equinox Library

Services Canada (ELSC). ELSC was formed in response to Canadian libraries requesting that ILS systems be physically located in Canada; all ESLC hosting

services will be provided from a Toronto datacenter. ELSC will also provide implementation, support, training, and other services for Evergreen and Koha.

“The formation of Equinox Library Services Canada is a huge leap forward in expanding Evergreen and Koha’s reach into Canada,” said Equinox Software’s

president, Brad LaJeunesse. “Canada is very friendly to open source—and we already have many existing Canadian customers—but the Canadian subsidiary will allow us to offer even more services that libraries are asking for.”

Evergreen is a robust, open-source integrated library system best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction,

multi-site consortia. However, it has also proven equally successful scaled down for even the smallest libraries. Evergreen now supports over 1,000

libraries of every type-public, academic, special, and school media centers across 4 countries, 31 U.S. states, and 8 Canadian provinces. The Georgia

PINES, King County Public Library System, SCLENDS, and NC Cardinal consortiums are all currently running Evergreen.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, see

Farmington Hills, Mich., Jan. 20, 2012 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced the source libraries, collections and plans for the first four modules of Nineteenth Century Collections Online, its global digitization and publishing program that brings together rare nineteenth-century primary source content. Currently still in development, the modules will be available this spring.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online is an ongoing publishing program with content and partner libraries being added continuously. The British Library, The National Archives (United States), The National Archives at Kew, United Kingdom, the Bodleian Library – University of Oxford, and Castle Corvey in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany have all provided primary source content to be digitized and included in the archive. Approximately 150 collections from these institutions—as well as from many other libraries and archives-- will be included in modules this year.

“One of the important elements of Nineteenth Century Collections Online is that most of the content has never before been digitized, and a great deal of the content has never been captured for microfilm or been otherwise made available outside the source institution,” said Jim Draper, vice president and publisher, Gale. “This archive is opening up rare and important materials to a world of researchers, no matter their location.”

The first modules of Nineteenth Century Collections Online, to be released this spring, include:

• British Politics and Society – will present a range of primary sources covering such topics as British domestic and foreign policy, the working class, trade unions, Chartism, Owenism, public protest, radical movements, the cartographic record, political reform and many others. It will feature the following collections, among others:
 British Cabinet Papers, 1880-1916
 Civil Disturbance, Chartism and Riots in NineteenthCentury England
 People’s History: Working Class Autobiographies
 Radicals and Reformers in Britain: The Papers of John Cam Hobhouse, 1809-1865
• Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange – will cover such topics as British and U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy; Asian political, economic, and social affairs; the Philippine Insurrection, the Opium Wars and more. Featured collections include:
 Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Osaka and Hiogo (Kobe), Japan, 1868-1906
 Dispatches from U.S. Ministers to Korea, 1883-1905
 History of the Philippine Insurrection Against the United States, 1899-1903, and Documents Relating to the War Department Project for Publishing of History, 1899-1903
• British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture – will include a range of materials, including playbills, scripts, operas and scores – many of them never before filmed or made available electronically – covering such topics as Victorian popular culture, street literature, music and bloods and penny dreadfuls. Collections include:
 Archive of the Royal Literary Fund
 Drury Lane Under Sheridan, 1776-1812, Manuscript Plays and Correspondence
 English State After the Restoration, 1733-1822
 Popular Literature in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Britain, Parts Three-Ten: The Barry Ono Collection of Bloods and Penny Dreadful
• Corvey Collection of European Literature: 1790-1840 – is a unique collection of monographs covering a wide range of Romantic literature published in English, French and German. Sourced from Corvey Abbey in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, it is one of the most important collections of works from the period in existence. Focused on rare works, specifically difficult-to-find works by lesser-known women writers, this collection includes:
 Novels and Gothic Novels
 Belles-Lettres
 Short Prose Forms
 Dramatic Works
 Poetry

For more information on Nineteenth Century Collections Online, please visit http://gdc.gale.com/products/nineteenth-century-collections-online/ or download Nineteenth Century Collections Online Museum, the free iOS application available in the iTunes app store (search: nineteenth century). It provides free content and the opportunity to interact with materials (including manuscripts, sheet music, photos and more) in the context which is most relevant to the user. The application also enables researchers to receive information regarding events, enhancements and research tips, as well as the opportunity to provide feedback and drive development of the program.

Gale will also be previewing the groundbreaking new publishing platform of Nineteenth Century Collections Online at its booth (#2219) at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Dallas, TX, Jan. 20-23.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

Farmington Hills, Mich., Jan. 24, 2012 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning, today announced results of independent customer satisfaction research and analysis that revealed high school students and librarians are highly satisfied with Biography in Context, an online resource designed from user input and continually enhanced based on librarian and student feedback. The increase in satisfaction follows ongoing improvements in search functionality and the addition of new content and hundreds of portals.

“From day one, it has been paramount to have user and librarian feedback drive the design and overall look and feel of our In Context products,” said Frank Menchaca, executive vice president and publisher, Gale. “We understood it would take time for our users to adjust and become comfortable with the new databases, and we are pleased to see, as demonstrated by these high satisfaction scores, that librarians and users are truly embracing the enhancements, additions and tireless work we’ve put into Biography in Context.”

ForeSee surveys showed that the overall satisfaction score among all users of Biography in Context has increased to 71, exceeding the content industry satisfaction benchmark and demonstrating users are happy with ongoing enhancements to the product. Student and Librarian satisfaction with Biography in Content was measured in the content category by ForeSee Results, Inc., a well-known independent, international online customer satisfaction firm. Satisfaction scores are reported on a 0-100 scale with a score of 70 setting the industry standard for “good” satisfaction.

An analysis of ForeSee survey data revealed overall librarian satisfaction scores increased a dramatic 9 points to 73 for the period ending Nov. 2011, a more than significant increase. High school student satisfaction increased an impressive 5 points to 76 for the same period, and college student satisfaction continues to be exceptional, scoring above 80. Changes in satisfaction over time are very meaningful - a sustained change of 2-3 points (up or down) is statistically significant and changes greater than 5 points are considered major events.

Librarians and Library Journal reviewers also affirmed the value of Biography in Context by naming the resource to the Library Journal 2011 Best Databases List, which was published in the November 15th issue and is available online here.

ForeSee Results satisfaction scores are based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the leading national indicator of customer satisfaction with goods and services in the U.S. economy, and a patented scientific approach to customer satisfaction measurement. ForeSee Results applies the ACSI methodology to the web to measure key elements of online satisfaction (site performance, navigation, etc.), and analyzes how these elements impact overall user satisfaction and future behavior.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

OCLC has established a strategic partnership with Sustainable Collection Services, LLC, an organization founded by the principals of R2 Consulting, that leverages WorldCat Data to help libraries intelligently manage their print monograph collections.

The SCS service leverages WorldCat data, the largest aggregation of bibliographic data in the world, as a primary source for deselection metadata. Access to this data is enabled by the OCLC WorldShare Platform, which exposes OCLC's Web services and data for use and reuse by third party partners.

This strategic partnership reflects OCLC's commitment to provide broader access to the Platform environment and WorldCat data. Partners like SCS can take advantage of the same infrastructure that OCLC uses to build and maintain its own services, providing libraries with an extended range of application options that take advantage of the same core data.

The SCS service will complement current OCLC offerings to help libraries analyze their collections, joining WorldCat Collection Analysis and a wide range of reports that are currently available using the OCLC Stats.org tool.

"OCLC's work with Sustainable Collection Services illustrates the value of building partnerships in service to libraries using the OCLC WorldShare Platform," said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. "OCLC considers all types of partnerships that add value to the library community. Working with WorldCat, Sustainable Collection Services is better equipped to make the right recommendations for libraries and their lending partners."

"WorldCat holdings data is central to a well-coordinated print management project," notes Rick Lugg, President of SCS. "Responsible deselection relies on knowledge of the collective collection, and WorldCat is the single best source for that information. OCLC has been enormously helpful during our first year of operation, streamlining access to library holdings through its WorldCat API. Our strategic partnership builds on that foundation and broadens the scope of our collaboration, enabling SCS to develop an innovative collection analytics application. My partners and I at SCS look forward to exploring the full potential of the OCLC WorldShare Platform."

Sustainable Collection Services was formed just over a year ago. In the first year of operation, it has worked with more than a dozen academic libraries and consortia across the country to consult on print management strategies, and to generate withdrawal and preservation candidate lists based on library-defined criteria.

About Sustainable Collection Services LLC:
Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) provides tools and advice to support data-driven deselection of monographs. Founded in January 2011 by Rick Lugg and Ruth Fischer of R2 Consulting, along with partners Andy Breeding and Eric Redman, SCS focuses on collection analytics. The company’s services enable libraries to analyze circulation and holdings data, and to generate actionable title lists for withdrawal, storage, preservation, and shared print archiving. (www.sustainablecollections.com)

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit the OCLC website at www.oclc.org.